Category Archives: Remembering

Tall Tale

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A Tall Tale on the ‘I Think Speech’ podcast – Greetings friends on this eve of St. Patrick’s Day, Today for ‘Tune-in Tuesday’ – my weekly musing for our Practice Group working with the 6Basic, Essential, Protective exercises, given to us by Rudolf Steiner, in honor of the 5th exercise of Open-mindedness, I thought to share a ‘Tall Tale’ revised by me for us today, but originally told 6 years ago when my daughter was still at the Chicago Waldorf School, by master teacher Carol Triggiano, known far & wide as a fabulous storyteller – Open-mindedness asks us to consider that anything is possible. So here is a wonderful Paul Bunyan Tall Tale.

The crescent Moon A 12-percent-lit Moon hangs in the sky the evening of March 16, showing off Mare Crisium on its eastern side. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

16 March 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna passes south of Uranus at 9 pm CST. Our satellite, less than four days old & only 12 percent lit an hour after sunset, currently straddles the border between Cetus & Aries. Just visible along the lit lunar edge is Mare Crisium, the Sea of Crises. On its western side are two small craters: Pierce to the south & Swift to the north. And north of the mare’s rim is the large crater Cleomedes, which stands out in stark relief now but will begin to disappear as the Moon grows closer to Full, losing contrast along the way.

Gerard Wagner | Art, Painting, Wagner
Gerald Wagner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

10 Cathars ideas | cathar, albigensian crusade, pure ones

1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burned to death after the Fall of Montségur.

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1966 – Death Day of Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk

Johanna von Keyserlingk: Vessel for the Etheric Christ | Christian  communities, Rudolf steiner, Rudolf
Johanna von Keyserlingk: Vessel for the Etheric Christ

Humanity is ripe for ‘the Christ experience’ such as Paul had in Damascus. Johanna von Keyserlingk, the hostess of the conference in Koberwitz in 1924 where biodynamic agriculture was born, was one such person. Inwardly she was also the hostess of powerful spiritual observations. She shared these insights in books such ‘Gralburg’ (Grail Castle, about the Hermitage near the Goetheanum in Bern Switzerland) ‘Twelve days around Rudolf Steiner’ (about her time with Rudolf Steiner during the Agriculture course on her estate) her insights into The mystery of Kaspar Hauser & Lord Stanhope, & power of the Palladium. The trip to Byzantium – The Palladium of Victory. But mostly her life was very  secret, & she endured a lot of suffering.

As an 8-year-old girl of noble birth, while walking with her governess in the Vienna Woods in 1887, meets a thin, 26-year-old man, with dark hair & powerful eyes, who looks at her with a penetrating gaze. This meeting lives & works in her until, as the 39-year-old countess, she meets a 56-year-old man towards the end of the 1st World War. She had already attended 2 of his lectures & read some of his books. After this meeting she is able to speak with him in private. He asks her where she was at the age of 8. After some thought, she comes to nothing but the place – Breslau, where she lived then. But he shakes his head, apparently he means something else with his question. Johanna has more conversations with him & six months later he repeats the question. Then she suddenly remembers the young man in the Vienna Woods who had looked at her with wonderful eyes. This man was, of course, Rudolf Steiner.

On March 26, 1879, on the threshold of the beginning of the new Michael era, Johanna was born in Brno. Her father, which she described as a true despot, was the son of Scottish nobility -Karl von Skene. He eneded up in Silesia via Austria & married her future mother, Klara Schoeller, who came from a family of industrialists. Together with 3 brothers (Karl, Philipp & Robert) she lived near her father’s estates.

Her clairvoyant powers were revealed early on, which was not unusual in her father’s Celtic line. These experiences made her both lonely & independent at an early age. Not understood by people in her environment, she often sought comfort in nature, in the park near ancient trees, & there she had contact with elemental spirits.

About this period she wrote: “I remember very well that as a small child I could look at the window between the bars of my bed and see the sun rise in the morning and that I experienced the sun as what other children see as their mother and father. I know also, that the other children I played with often chased me    when I correctly predicted the death of an adult as if it were self-evident. However, when I noticed that not even my mother saw what I perceived spiritually in my environment, I kept silent.”  

At the end of her teens, she became involved with Kant’s philosophy, with Angelus Silesius & with the poet Hölderlin. In 1899 she was 21 years old, she married Count Carl Wilhelm von Keyserlingk, & had 3 boys: Wolfgang (1900), & a boy (1902) who soon died & Adalbert (1905). They went to live in Klettendorff, not far from Breslau. Later this became the castle Koberwitz (1920), partly on the advice of Steiner.

Because of her devoted son Adalbert, most of the memoirs & notes were made public, but only after Johanna died at the age of 87 (March 16, 1966 in Bad Teinach). With intimate friends such as Rudolf Meyer (who lived in Koberwitz for 3 years), Emil Bock, Friedrich Rittelmeyer, Eliza von Moltke, Margarita Woloschina & Monica von Miltitz, she already shared her experiences & her confidential conversations with Steiner during her life.

When she was 28, Johanna went thru a painful phase in her life. She was sick in bed due to an entopic pregnancy, which almost killed her. What she experienced was that some sort of strange individuality wanted to incarnate in her.

“When I had been given up by the doctors and felt that my life force was leaving me, I suddenly saw a shining figure next to the bed, from which a penetrating force emanated.”

And the first words she was able to speak after this experience were:

“Me and my house want to serve the Lord; for I have experienced what the captain of Capernaum experienced.” (And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, 6and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” 7Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9“For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. 11“I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; 12but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go; it shall be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed that very moment. ~ Matthew 8:5-10)

“When I heard from the doctors that there was no more salvation for me, which I had already experienced myself, I knew: now I will reach the goal of my life, the Christ. Either in death or in the spirit world. White starlight was around me, and I was thinking of the fevered son of Capernaum’s chieftain. Science dawned on me: when you now see the Christ, he can also restore earth life to you. There were energies buzzing next to me and a fire figure appeared next to my bed. Such strength emanated from him that I believed I could not bear it. It was like over-tensioning the atmosphere because of the pressing of the ether. I felt as if that would tear me apart and heard the words: Go, your faith has helped you …

It was a very white silence around me, and glittering life entered me from there. The pains were gone. The doctor came and assumed that this condition was agony. But life continued to shine, and when my husband asked what had happened, I could only say that in the New Testament he had to seek out the healing of Capernaum. As of this hour, there was only a common solution for us. Me and my house want to serve the Lord. My illness was gone and life took a different direction. But as bright was the light that I had seen, so dark was the time I had to live in the following years. It was like I was going to die. For years now I had experienced the terrible of death in all phases.”

Her brow bone, which was just above the root of the nose, literally shattered. Years later, bone splinters that had grown out had to be removed using tweezers. With the forehead chakra released in this radical way, her clairvoyant experiences increased in number & intensity.

What is expressed in this event? Perhaps people who are associated with Christ on earth had a role to play in preparing for His return in the etheric starting in the 20th century; a karmic bond that is revealed in this time of the Second Coming. Rudolf Steiner talked about the youth of Nain, who was raised from the dead by Christ & so was initiated into a task for the future of humanity. Steiner also pointed out the connection between the resurrected Lazarus John & the teacher of humanity, Christian Rosenkreutz. This is also the time when Steiner describes Christ becoming the Lord of karma.

At the ‘Turning Point of Time’ the apostles gathered by Christ were the 1st to be inaugurated in this new impulse, there must be anthroposophers starting in the 30’s & into our time now that are able to receive the inspiration of Christ, now as Lord of Karma. Anthroposophy wants to be a movement of people who work to restore their karma. Steiner tells us: Spiritual science “imposes enormous responsibility upon us, for it prepares for the concrete event of the reappearance of Christ.”

It is known that Steiner took actual people as examples for some of the characters in his mystery dramas. Perhaps Johanna was the model for Theodora?

According to Steiner, Johanna had an awakened consciousness that would become normal perhaps a 1000 years in the future! Perhaps this ‘premature birth’ was what caused her much pain in her life…? And yet, Steiner called the figure next to the sick bed of Johanna the Christ power.

In one of the conversations with Steiner, he also warned that Johanna was facing great Luciferic dangers, but that she had special qualities  – the iron of Mars, that could protect her from this. He called her ‘the Iron Countess’.

In 1915, Johanna started to write down a series of imaginations  that she received. This lead to a book that describes the fortunes of a grail knight going through a mental training: the book Gralburg. In the preface she writes the following about it:

In these imaginations my own experience in full reality passes by. It is lived more real than earthly events are experienced. As the images are there, that’s how I experienced them. Often the images and words sounded strange and inexplicable, I did not understand them and I do not understand much of them nowadays, but I could not change anything, because I wanted to stay with the truth. Often the end of an image was added as an explanation only after years. Real spirit beings met the spirit student, and they addressed him in real words. These spiritual words have actually been spoken to him.

As far as I can judge, these things have lived in the astral. The astral, however, takes place in the interior of the earth in the direction of midnight. This astral is invisible in itself and fine visible form force expresses itself in the periphery of the earth, in the ether world. That which happens invisibly in the depths, is imprinted in the ether and comes to visibility, and what I saw there I wrote down.

This book cannot be judged by a literary standard. I wrote it down for myself and I don’t feel the need for others to read it. If it were just me, I would put it in a desk drawer; and then it can be read after my death or not. And when I am asked now, yes, why do you spend it anyway, then I can only answer – not for my sake, but so that the others hear of the figure so lovingly striding through the hall.

Imagine a fine brilliance of tender sunlight
flowing from his soul
Imagine a pair of warm eyes, so full of love
that you start to glow, and you kneel
Imagine a mouth from which truth springs
as if from a deep source the deity itself arises,
it sounds so beautiful, that forever
you would like to listen to this voice in reverence.

Imagine his hands caressing your hair
with a gesture that heals all suffering.
Yes, under their light springs the new life we seek!
Imagine a ruler striding like this
and highest heavenly threads are for him
and where his foot goes is light
that shows us the right way.
Do you see his garment shining from afar
then the fire starts to burn in your heart,
it is so beautiful that you cannot comprehend it.

And he sees your suffering
and he approaches you
which makes your heart completely still.
And gently, like the song of angelic children,
the air that blows towards you is so lovely.

You can put your head on his knee in quiet humility
and deep peace comes into you.
The sun radiates from his holy body
and sun flows over your mind,
and you see jubilantly in the golden distance,
your homeland, where he draws you.

Later she adds to this hymn : “At the sight of the Nazarene standing before me, written down in a short moment”.

Through the book: Koberwitz 1924, Geburtsstunde einer neuen Landwirtschaft, “moment of birth of a new agriculture”, many people learn the name of the Keyserlingk family. At the time, Koberwitz was an estate owned by the family, near Breslau.

At Pentecost in 1924, a gathering took place here in the penultimate year before Rudolf Steiner’s untimely death, to which many attendees have fond memories. From the descriptions of the different souls you can get the feeling that there was a true cosmopolitan Pentecostal Spirit. As the title of the book indicates, this was also the time and place where the birth of biodynamic agriculture can be situated.

But more happened there in the days of June 7-17, 1924. For example, it was the first time the Johani Epistle was pronounced at the altar, during the Christian Consecration Service (established 2 years earlier). The impression arises that in Koberwitz a successful meeting between the royal & the priestly streams took place. In total there were 120 people, many with an agricultural background, but also many who attended, for example, the evening lectures on karma or the Eurythmy performances, such as Eliza von Moltke, Rittelmeyer, Bock, Wachsmuth, Koschützki, Marie Steiner, Vreede & many others. So these days were busy with all kinds of activities. It was later discovered that at night Steiner wrote whole parts of his autobiography, which appeared shortly afterwards in the weekly Das Goetheanum & were later compiled into My Way of Life, he also received & answered countless mail correspondences.

In addition to a number of eurhythmy performances & esoteric hours, karma lectures were also held in Breslau in the evening. In addition, a large number of people had personal conversations with Steiner. It is therefore surprising to hear that Steiner, who made an extremely tired impression on arrival, gradually became more vital. From those 12 special days around Rudolf Steiner arose many personal memories of a number of participants.

Here’s a good example of ‘how karma works’. In principle, the course was only intended for people with an agricultural background. Young Wilhelm Rath, as one of the initiators of the youth movement, passed by Koberwitz alone to deliver a package to Steiner, some notes by Walter Johannes Stein, in which he describes his own spiritual experiences for Rudolf Steiner. The state post is not the appropriate means for distributing such documents so WJ Stein asked Rath to hand them over personally. Because of this, Rath was then allowed to attend the entire Steiner course, although Wachsmuth wanted to deny him that at first. This later turns out to be an important turning point in his professional work,

The book Koberwitz 1924 not only gives a nice impression of the conference but also of Johanna herself. We read that she played a harmonium for the guests, that she & her husband were the perfect hosts & that she personally took care of the flowers & plants in the castle park. The Staff loved her. A chambermaid, who also wrote a contribution in the book singing her praises.

A life motto for the count’s couple was: Founding places of love and peace, where the Christ can be resurrected – this was engraved on a memorial for Steiner after he died.

The image of a fairytale-like white mosque with a minaret appeared before Johanna’s eye, & she heard the word Bosphorus. According to her, this was the answer to a question she had been dealing with for a long time. It was 1925 & Rudolf Steiner had already died. Later on Christmas 1925, she was with severe pneumonia in Sonnenhof in Arlesheim, where Ita Wegman nursed her. There, Mieta Waller asked her if she could use her clairvoyance to help find the Palladium in Constantinople. After all, legend tells that Emperor Constantine buried the Palladium under a large column. This question was the start of a long search that would be continued by her son Adalbert.

The Palladium has been called the greatest solar gem on Earth by Steiner, & world development depends on whether this underground sun-sanctuary is illuminated by “the sun of the west” – the new light of human thought. A truly cryptic description! Especially since Steiner also indicated that it would be an object buried somewhere. The comparison can then be made between the physically present cup of the last supper & the transcendental grail.

She made a trip to Constantinople, to Hagia Sophia & experienced all kinds of things that are described in a diary, including that she had seen this mosque in the image of the ghost. Physical indications & images not yet understood alternated. However, the Palladium was not found. It is questionable whether the Palladium might have been found spiritually. However, she said, this cannot be discussed it is “a question for the future”.

In the Achmedie Imperial Palace, she received gruesome images inscribed in the ether of the Council of Constantinople in 869 AD. She recognized ahrimanic inspirations. Steiner often spoke of this council where the “spirit” of the human being was abolished. She experienced what Steiner called a second Golgotha ​​& the moment when the karma of the people began to become disordered.

In Hagia Sophia, however, she experienced the luminous presence of Christ & of of Michael, as the sunrise of a new dawn.

It is a risk when people make statements about what they consider to be their previous incarnations. Because the chance of mistakes & projection of wishes is high & the reader may be led astray by such incorrect information. It was therefore not Johanna’s aim that the relevant notes of her own research in her diaries would be made public during her lifetime. She did, however, discuss it with Steiner & her son Adalbert. He decided to publish the notes after her death, fully aware of the problems that this could entail.

In 1922 she visited a forest in Rawitz where she had been as a child. “When I arrived, the spirits of the trees and shrubs on this familiar road back started to speak to me, to my surprise. But what they told me this time was not pleasant to me. They told me: “You are free now, you have to deliver us, we are bound to these trees.” And they added, I had tied them to this place myself in a past life. I said to them, “Your trees are not old at all, how can I have met you before?” But they answer: Our fathers were already here, and in them our spirits have inherited themselves. – You shouldn’t leave until you deliver us”.

It is then explained to her how she could accomplish this salvation by making 3 crosses on the trunk while invoking the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. So she does this & from each one a strip of light is released, which then, according to her observation, dissolves in the light of Christ.

Shortly before, she had had “images” in the same environment of a man who lived several hundred years ago, who loved to be in nature & had conversations with nature spirits. She had the impression that the man was also involved in magic. He spoke to her : “I am glad that you are here, I have also come to see you. You must carry on with the work that I have begun. I will show you what happened here, and you must then free what I have banned. “

It is characteristic of Johanna that she told Steiner this kind of experience. She was not yet sure about the meaning. Steiner confirmed that this man with faustic traits was a previous incarnation of hers. He had banished the elemental beings in the trees. That is why she now had to free them herself.

In an earlier conversation where Eliza von Moltke was also present, Steiner had said, “The countess once experienced that earth life is spiritual death.” Without Steiner’s help, she probably wouldn’t have come to these insights.

A central theme with Johanna that she always discussed with Steiner (she has had about twenty-eight apprenticeships with him) is Shamballah or the golden land, as she calls it. She related that to the moment when the blood of Christ flowed into the earth initiating a new solar globe. She saw out of the earth’s core, a golden fire in the earth’s depth. Like Ptolemy she called this the primal sun. This connected her with Empedocles who plunged into the fire of Mount Etna.

She described it in the following way in a question to Steiner: “…originally there was the fire and the light. These lived together in a deep harmony. Then the light rejected the power of the fire, and the smoke, which could no longer rise in the light, returned and covered the fire, and so the primeval fire was covered with a layer of ash. This axis is the mineral of the Earth. At first people saw through it to their primal home, the primal sun, but the earth became more and more dense and the smoke darkened more and more. Man seemed to be separated from the primeval sun (which is paradise) by the mineral layer. With this primeval sun which has been revived by the Christ, man must try to unite again.”

Steiner confirmed to her that this primordial sun is also the land of Shamballah, where the initiates of all time took their inspiration and what will become visible to all people in the future. It is closely related to the etheric second coming of the Christ & His work on a new heaven & a new earth in which people can play an active role.

Steiner spoke repeatedly of the Iron Count & Countess, not only because the Koberwitz land which was iron rich. He wanted Johanna to conquer & free her clairvoyance with her iron will, which was linked to her innate clairvoyance, & also from her dependence on Steiner’s influence. Before she met Steiner, Johanna had a life where everything came to her. Spiritual guidance had provided for her fortunes. This would change soon.

They were able to remain in Koberwitz for  4years after 1924. A movement started immediately on several fronts, reinforced after Steiner’s death in 1925, that came to destroy the new biodynamic impulse. The fertilizer industry, including IG Farben, felt threatened by this new impulse. They wanted to buy a booklet describing the agricultural course for a large sum of money. But Carl declined, partly because it was decided to test it in practice before the course content is published. In the company where Carl worked with several co-owners, tensions grew & he had to leave the field in 1928. They also left Koberwitz. Shortly after, he died en route to Dornach. According to Johanna because of a broken heart.

Not much is known about her life after that, except that it was difficult. In 1941 she was captured by the Gestapo, who interrogated her for days. She saw a figure next to the German officer who was closely following what was being said. But she was not tempted to give in to this demonic being. Unfortunately it is not known how Johanna experienced the years 1933-1945.

After 1945 she could no longer stay in Poland & fled to the west where she ended up in Stuttgart, completely destitute & incognito. In 1949 the book Koberwitz was published as a private edition. In the years before her death she went blind.

Just before this book went to press, I learned that a group of people is publishing At this time she wrote about Kaspar Hauser. She also wrote about her relationship with Steiner after his death: “While during the life of Rudolf Steiner one could still live in the sphere of his personal closeness without great effort, it was no longer possible after his death. After the death hour of 1925, there were still encounters in the astral for me. But I think that this is happening more and more at a distance. Was the atmosphere of the earth obscured by what was preparing for threats there in Germany? We were alone, as if deserted. It was as if there was an impenetrable dark night in the otherwise bright atmosphere”.

This shows how difficult it was to hold the Pentecostal substance of Koberwitz in the dark period now dawning.

“It was on the morning of Rudolf Steiner’s cremation, which I did not go to. The teacher’s body was still laid out in his studio, where the aura of the beloved teacher appeared next to me. I was told to write. I took paper and pen and the following words came from his presence. Often I could not write quickly enough, then paused and waited until I was back, as Rudolf Steiner used to do when he dictated to me.

“My job has ended….What I could give the people who were ready for it, I gave them…I am going, because I found no ears that could hear the spiritual word behind the word…I am going, because I found no eyes that could see the ghosts behind the earth images….I go because I found no people who could realize my will… The mysteries remain hidden until I come back. I will come back and reveal the mysteries when I have succeeded in creating an altar, a cultic place for human souls, in spirit worlds. Then I’ll come back. Then I will continue to reveal the mysteries.”

“Those are to blame for my death, which have held back the culture of the heart. Had people pushed through their hearts into the depths, they would have found the strength for the challenges of this time.”

There are those who do not consider these statements to come from Steiner but rather as projections from Johanna herself, or from the adversarial forces speaking. It is left to the reader to judge.

We do know that Rudolf Steiner is able to teach his students in the spirit body, as indicated in the mystery dramas.

A short conversation with Steiner in 1924, before his death, will conclude this biography for now.

Johanna: “Mankind is spoiled anyway [miscarriages]“. Steiner: “Yes, you can say that.” Johanna: “But what will happen at the end of the century?” Steiner in despair: “I don’t know either – but Ahriman is also part of Christ.”

***

R. Steiner, in:The Gospel of Matthew(Zeist 2003, GA 123), lecture, Sept. 10. 1910

M. von Miltitz, in Foreword by J. von Keyserlingk,Die Reise nach Byzanz-Das Palladium des Sieges(Basel 1991)

Erlöste Elemente(Stuttgart 1991)

Palladiump. 16

Adalbert (died 23-10-1993), besides an enthusiastic promoter of biodynamic agriculture, also a doctor and researcher of ancient mystery places, wroteVergessene Kulturen im Monte Gargano(Nürnberg 1968) andUnd sie erstarrten in Stein(Basel 1983).

Die Reise nach Byzanz-Das Palladium des Sieges,p. 16. InIn the Gospels there are several references to Capernaum and a healing of a sick person through Christ. Johanna talks about a chief and his sick son. Matthew 8 speaks of a chief of Capernaum and his sick servant; in Luke 7 about a chief and his sick slave ; in John 4 about a courtier and his sick son.

Koberwitz 1924, Geburtsstunde einer neuen Landwirtschaft(Privatdruck 1985) p. 25f

InIJsselaarde. Magazine to deepen the relationship with the living environment(Sept. 1999)

Wiedergerufen vom Herrn des Schicksals and Falter und Bluete (with poems) (Dornach 1998)

KC Markides, The magician of Strovolos (Deventer 1995), see also the article by G. Zwahlen about Daskalos inDas Goetheanum,number 34, Dec. 3. 1995

GA 118, Jan 25. 1910

The Gospel according to Matthew(Zeist 2003, GA 123), lecture 10 Sept. 1910

Gralburg(Stuttgart 1968, antiquarian still available sporadically). It was thrown into the lap many years ago through a book flea market. That eventually led to this article. Steiner already thought that the book should be made public because it demonstrates how an individual path of development can proceed.

H. Giersch (ed.)Das Ätherische Christus-Wirken. Rudolf Steiner über die Wiederkunft Christivan Harold Giersch (Dornach 1991)

G. Hillerdal and B. Gustafsson,Christ experiences today(Bergen op Zoom 2002); HW. Schroeder, On the second coming of Christ (Zeist 2000); HP van Moons,Coming and Second Coming – About the second coming of Christ and the coming of anti-christ(Zeist 1999); G. Bossis,My shadow, that is your neighbor(Zeist 2001); G. Goelzer and M. Friederich,Falter und Bluete – Christuswort und Christerkenntnis(Dornach 1994); Wiedergerufen vom Herrn des Schicksals, A1 Die Samariterin am Brunnen(Dornach 1998)

Fertile agriculture(Zeist 1992,GA 327)

The Aya (or: Hagia) Sophia, completed in 537 on the site where a church was built in 360, became a mosque in 1453 and has been a museum since 1932.

H. Oehms,Know your karma – Karma insight and self-development(Zeist 2000); F. Berger,fellow sufferers, coherence between different lives on the track(Zeist 2000); J. Saether,Wandeln unter unsichtbaren Menschen(Stuttgart 1999). About learning to look at people in order to place them in a spiritual context, without speaking directly about previous incarnations, see: A. Koopmans,Kijk op karma(Zeist 2002) andPractical human science(Zutphen 2004)

J.Ben Aharon,The spiritual event of the 20th century. An imagination. The occult dimension of the years 1933-1945(Zeist 1996)

R. Steiner (GA 118) nomination Munich March 15, 1910

The years 1933-1945 could have been illuminated by her from her clairvoyant fireplaces. You can suspect that J. Ben Aharon experienced this lack as well and that is why he connects with Johanna in his book about those years.

In various terms this theme is mentioned “altar in the spiritual world”, as is also the case in the speech for the youth in Koberwitz:“spiritual light will only come in this century, if Michael succeeds in the way in the astral light to the altar where the flame burns that Ahriman fears. ” Also inHelmuth von Moltke 1848-1916. Dokumente zu seinem Wirken(Basel 1993) March 27, 1919

In:Koberwitz 1924, p. 177

These statements (as well as the following) make it clear that Steiner saw a bright future for mankind looming. In lectures (GA 346) for the priests of the Christian Community he mentioned the year 1933 in which the apocalyptic beast would stir again. –

This Friday, March 19th at 6 pm PT, 7 pm MT, 8 pm CT, 9 pm ET
we will be speaking with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Click to Join the Café

“Holding the Chalice of Balance with Archangel Raphael –
An exploration of the Vernal Equinox” with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

At the time of the Spring Equinox, Raphael, Archangel of the East & the Element of Air, is active as the great Cosmic Physician. The Easter-Tide works on us thru the spiritual healing of inspiration, provided by Raphael who is now in the etheric heights, waving a helix of shining vitality. Raphael uses the caduceus as a wand, to mingle air & fire, water & earth, transmuting them into healing forces; working & weaving in the cosmos, & entering into our conscious inspiration of light. Yes this is a goal of our human evolution, to be able to breathe light. Spiritual Science calls it ‘moral breathing’ – to ‘inhale evil & exhale the good’. Could the Corona crisis be calling us to this task? We have a powerful ally to assist us every year at this special time of balance. 

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg– Founder of Reverse Ritual Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year. Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Trans-denominational Minister, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, The Traveling Speakers Program, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

For more info. contact Front Range Anthroposophical Cafe – Tom Altgelt altgelt@indra.com

***

Daniel Ospina


The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being

Sophie Takata

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) HOLY WEEK CHART

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Dottie Zold – On the Buddha’s 8-Fold Path

Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary

We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Easter Festival for the Elementals

Time: Apr 4, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=Z0ZmT05FdDZIclE4RFBLZWNwWXJ5QT09 Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Easter

Dial by your location – Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: 776400 – Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch
of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618 (maphttps://donate.rschicago.org/ 

Speak

Orpheus - Östlicher Mittelmeerraum as art print or hand painted oil.
Orpheus
Pherecydes of Leros - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia
die Namenlose = the nameless one , teacher of Pherecydes
Hypatia: The Last Of The Great Philosophers Of Alexandria
Hypatia of Alexandria
Friedrich Walther | Sermon of Saint Albertus Magnus | German | The  Metropolitan Museum of Art
Albertus Magnus
Marie Steiner von Sivers | Art workshop, Meditation, Vons


1867 – Birthday of Marie Steiner von Sivers – born into an aristocratic family in Włocławek, Poland, then part of Russia. Her father, Jacob was from a respected German-Danish family, who lived in Russia for 250 years with ties to the government of Latvia & Estonia. As lieutenant general, he had a high position in the Russian military. Caroline Baum, Marie’s mother, was the daughter of a German doctor, born & raised on the White Sea, in northern Russia.

Marie Steiner-von Sivers – Raffael-Verlag

Marie was a small, petite child of great skill & motivation. She had light-gold-blond hair & bright blue eyes. She was very receptive to the impressions of nature, in the countryside & by the sea.
When Marie was 7 years old, the family moved to the Baltic Sea & after her father retired, the family moved to St. Petersburg & settled there.

Marie attended a German private school. The principal called her ‘the young Schiller’. Marie was very shortsighted when she was a young girl, but had a very sensitive, almost oversensitive hearing. At the age of 11, she began to recite poetry.

Her family had a rather formal lifestyle based on aristocratic norms. Thinking was conservative & full of prejudice. They only associated with other rich German families. Marie found little understanding for her quest for higher values & life was made difficult for her to pursue these interests. Her parents wouldn’t allow her to be taught Greek, so she studied on her own.

Marie Steiner-von Sivers


Her father died when she was 15 years, & as she was becoming a teenager she had a lot of conflict with her mother. At the age of 17, they traveled abroad, to Berlin, Vienna & Switzerland. A new world opened up for Marie. This began a long, 10-year period, in which she struggled to realize her goals in social life. She joined the women’s movement, fought for women’s right to education & for the establishment of women’s universities. She cared about social & hygienic improvements for the population & contributed to school foundations & charity events, where she also appeared as an actress in stage plays. She felt this to be her calling, but again family disappoval & her own misgivings of the ‘immoral nature’ of the profession made her turn away.

After graduating from the German school, her family wouldn’t allow her to study linguistic & comparative religions like she wanted. She had to fight for permission to attend a Russian high school to obtain a teacher’s diploma. Afterwards she taught at a proletarian German school in St. Petersburg. There, she damaged her vocal cords & had to undergo surgery, making it difficult for her to speak for some time. She later considered this to be a karmic destiny forcing her to make speaking ‘organ-free’ according to Rudolf Steiner’s intentions.

Marie Steiner-von Sivers - Wikipedia


As life in the family became harder for Marie, she decided at age 22 to go live with her brother Jacob. She hoped to get closer to the meaning of life by working among the simple people. In her diary she wrote: ‘Where can I find the truth?’

Marie Steiner-von Sivers – Seite 2 – Raffael-Verlag

Her brother’s estate was located in the so-called Waldai, a slightly hilly, swampy area south of Novgorod. Marie helped her brother manage the estate. She set up a hospital that worked with homeopathic remedies, & a vegetarian diet. She provided emergency aid to refugees & set up a Sunday school for the village children. But the population met the two rich idealists with distrust & rejection. They were confronted with superstitions of all kinds, & so only the Sunday school was really accepted by the population.

Forschungsstelle Kulturimpuls - Biographien Dokumentation

Marie had a serious accident during this time: she fell down a staircase & injured herself so badly that she couldn’t move for several days.

When her brother died a year later, she had to return to her family in St. Petersburg. She was now 25 years old.

Peter Selg, Wir müssen vorwärts. Rudolf Steiner und Marie Steiner - von  Sivers - Zaailing

The story goes that Marie von Sivers “appeared one day” at one of Rudolf Steiner’s early lectures in 1900. In the autumn of 1901, she posed the question to Steiner, “Would it be possible to create a spiritual movement based on European tradition and the impetus of Christ?” Rudolf Steiner later reported: ‘With this, I was given the opportunity to act in a way that I had only previously imagined. The question had been put to me, and now, according to spiritual laws, I could begin to answer it’.

My memories of rudolf steiner and marie von sivers | eBay

Marie Steiner-von Sivers & Rudolf Steiner were married on Christmas Eve 1914, & she was one of his closest colleagues. Marie von Sivers collaborated with Steiner for the rest of his life & carried his work beyond his death in 1925 until her own death in 1948. She accompanied him & helped him as secretary, translator, editor, & organizer of his lecture tours & other public activities. She assisted Steiner’s work with her own resources & in 1908 founded the Philosophical-Theosophical Press (later Philosophical-Anthroposophical) to publish Steiner’s work.

Archivmagazin 7. Maart 2017 Marie Steiner-von Sivers - Zaailing

She made a great contribution to the development of anthroposophy, particularly in her work on the renewal of the performing arts (eurythmy, speech & drama), & the editing & publishing of Rudolf Steiner’s literary estate.

LA VITA E L'ATTIVITA' DI MARIE STEINER | Ecoantroposophia

Starting in 1912, the art of eurythmy was developed by Rudolf Steiner. Under Marie Steiner-von Sivers’ guidance, it developed in three directions, as a stage art, as an integral part of Waldorf pedagogy, & as a therapeutic method. Under her tutelage, two schools of eurythmy were founded, in Berlin & in Dornach, Switzerland.

Marie Steiner

Marie von Sivers was trained in recitation & elocution & made a study of purely artistic speaking. She gave introductory poetry recitals at Steiner’s lectures & assisted him in the development of the 4 Mystery Dramas (1910–1913). With her help, Steiner conducted several speech & drama courses with the aim of raising these forms to the level of true art.

Marie Steiner-von Sivers – Raffael-Verlag

Marie died on December 27th 1948, after making a reconciliation prompted by Ita Wegman.

This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 12 – 20 - Sky & Telescope - Sky &  Telescope

14 March 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Clocks spring forward an hour

Happy Mothering Sunday : Mothering Sunday Invitations - Invitation Card ::  Christian Publishing and Outreach (CPO)

Rudolf Steiner’s CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler

PASSIONTIDE 1V, Mothering Sunday
The World’s Fulfilment

v50
Earth’s Mother speaks…
her joy of growth in every bud’s unfurling,
revealing universal powers of her being,
is speaking to the human Self:
In bringing into you my life
released from its enchantment,
I reach my true fulfilment.

EASTERTIDE III
Foundation of the Self

v3
The human spirit speaks…
the growing I,
in self-forgetfulness
and conscious of its origin,
is speaking to the whole enwoven world:
In you, releasing chains
of private joys and pains,
I root my inborn truth.

www.portlandbranch.org In Memory of Marie Steiner-von Sivers

CREATIVE SPEECH from ‘Das Goetheanum,’ 7th March, 1926 By Marie Steiner von Sivers

“SPEECH reveals to the human being their divine nature; the sounds of speech are creative forces which unite us with our spiritual origin and enable us, once again, to find the path leading to the spirit. Speech raises the human being above the level of the animal; it leads us back to the Divine within our Ego. That spark from the Divine Ego, which, issuing forth, prepared itself to become human, had of necessity, as it traveled the path leading into the material world, to unite itself with the forces of destruction. When the densifying process worked too strongly, damming up the spirit, as it were, then the form could be cast off by the ever-recurring forces of death and change. Thus there arose the animal kingdom, which may be likened to a kind of extended alphabet, containing within it all that burdened humanity too heavily when we carried it compressed within the limits of our own being. In the human being it was able to be so far clarified that it could develop into the Word, into Speech. Sound, tone in the animal kingdom cannot rise to the level of speech. It remains mere noise in the case of cold-blooded animals, and, in the case of warm-blooded animals, inarticulate sound. Even in its most beautiful form, in the song of the birds, cosmic tone cannot fully reveal itself; the song of the birds is at most only its faintest echo. It is in speech that the individual force of the Ego first finds expression through tone and becomes aware of its own being. Through speech, cosmic forces can, as it were, focus themselves in an individual Ego and from out this Ego work creatively once more.

When the human being raises to the upright position, when we change from the horizontal position natural to the animal to the vertical position of the human being, we free the forces of speech. The child is overshadowed by these forces; as their individuality develops they become more and more strongly united with them. The child does not say ‘ I ’ of themselves so long as their utterance is mere incoherent babbling. In personal desire, in egoism, the lower ego in the first place struggles through, expressing itself in wishes and desires, afterwards working its way through to feeling and thence into thought. Thought enters into the human being through the gate of speech. Pictures, imaginations are in this way raised up into the consciousness. Through this interplay of processes the human being becomes a thinking being.

A ray from the spiritual essence of the Sun enters into the human being through the mind. In the German language there is a reflection of this in the words ‘Sonne’ (Sun) and ‘Sinn’ (Mind), where the all-embracing, all-enclosing vowel sound ‘ O ’ is transformed into an arrow of light in the vowel sound ‘ E ’ (ee)”.

We are looking forward to seeing you at
The Anthroposophical Café!


Speaker: Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

When: Friday, March 19, 2021 at 5 pm (PT) 7 pm (MT) 8 pm (CT) 9 pm (ET)

Where: Zoom (code coming soon)

Holding the Chalice of Balance with Archangel Raphael – An exploration of the Vernal Equinox with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

At the time of the Spring Equinox, Raphael, Archangel of the East & the Element of Air, is active as the great Cosmic Physician. The Easter-Tide works on us thru the spiritual healing of inspiration, when we can open to the crowning of all truths found in the healing breath of humankind. In the Spring, the Easter event is recalled in many cultures & although the Mystery of Golgotha entered into the evolution of the Earth as a once-and-for-all event, it is renewed in us each year.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

***


The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being

Sophie Takata

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Dottie Zold – On the Buddha’s 8-Fold Path

Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

We close with Singing ‘ & Eurythmy

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Easter Festival for the Elementals

Time: Apr 4, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=Z0ZmT05FdDZIclE4RFBLZWNwWXJ5QT09 Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Easter

Dial by your location – Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: 776400 – Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch
of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618 (maphttps://donate.rschicago.org/ 

Owning up

Bary Knolly

Owning up – a Lenten-Tide confession:

In a study yesterday, I was triggered by a Steiner quote that speaks about how it is impossible to live into the words of Paul “Not I, but Christ in me” if we are coming from what he calls an ‘egotistically religious’ motivation. This really hit me hard. I see this as a core cause behind what has become a deep wound.

Over the years I have championed an initiative whose ideals live strongly in me, but despite my hard work & dedication, I see that my motivations were selfish. I wanted something back. I wanted to belong. I wanted to have friends. I longed to be included. I wanted to be part of the team, to be seen as valued asset. I deeply desired to co-create.

I hoped that they would be excited about supporting my offerings as well, being part of my initiatives. I hoped that they would join the study groups. I envisioned hanging out, having check-ins, brainstorming & sharing experiences, personal stories & biography, talking about everything.

Gosh, I guess I wanted them to think I was cool; someone they respected, consulted for wisdom & insights. And more than anything, I wanted them to love me – for who I am.

Yep, years of giving support on every level, even when the majority was pushing against it, given freely, but always in the back of my mind with a hope that it would be returned. Now that I have let myself see this clearly, I understand why it has never come to be, that actually the opposite is true, instead of drawing them to me, I repel them away with my desire, my neediness. Dear ones, please forgive me.

I see that to live into “Not I, but Christ in me” – to express Anthroposophia in wholeness – I must be held to a higher standard. I must learn to put my own longings aside to truly serve – to really love unconditionally, without hope of return.

Help me Angel, assist me Sophia, comfort me Mother Mary, as I strive.

~hag

Sky chart of Orion the Hunter.
EarthSky.org

13 March 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Before dawn today Bella Luna goes into her New Moon phase behind the veil.

***

New Painting "Love is Our Way" - Steve Bell
Steve Bell

~Rumi quote for today:
“Love is the way
messengers from the mystery
tell us things.
Love is the mother
We are her children.
She shines inside us,
visible-invisible, as we trust or lose trust,
or feel it start to grow again.”

***

We are looking forward to seeing you at
The Anthroposophical Café!


Speaker: Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

When: Friday, March 19, 2021 at 5 pm (PT) 7 pm (MT) 8 pm (CT) 9 pm (ET)

Where: Zoom (code coming soon)

Holding the Chalice of Balance with Archangel Raphael – An exploration of the Vernal Equinox with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

At the time of the Spring Equinox, Raphael, Archangel of the East & the Element of Air, is active as the great Cosmic Physician. The Easter-Tide works on us thru the spiritual healing of inspiration, when we can open to the crowning of all truths found in the healing breath of humankind. In the Spring, the Easter event is recalled in many cultures & although the Mystery of Golgotha entered into the evolution of the Earth as a once-and-for-all event, it is renewed in us each year.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

***


The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being

Sophie Takata

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Dottie Zold – On the Buddha’s 8-Fold Path

Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

We close with Singing ‘ & Eurythmy

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Easter Festival for the Elementals

Time: Apr 4, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=Z0ZmT05FdDZIclE4RFBLZWNwWXJ5QT09 Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Easter

Dial by your location – Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: 776400 – Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch
of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618 (maphttps://donate.rschicago.org/ 

Positive Listening

Carrie Ann Baade
Carrie Ann Baade

Here is the spoken word on the ‘I Think Speech‘ Podcast

For our Lucky 13th Day of Lenten-Tide – ’ I am Marching in like a lion with a wee fairy tale that celebrates the power of Positivity & the blessings of the music of Spring.

Once upon a time a 100 years ago, or was it yesterday…A joyous thoughtful Queen married a kind & loving King from a distant land. During the wedding feast, he was poisoned by 3 evil Dukes who wanted to control the kingdom. They set up rumors that it was the Queen herself that had murdered the King. The Queen became very sad & nothing could cheer her up. What once was a joy became a burden. The constant undermining of the evil Dukes created enmity & doubt within the court & the Queen who was once revered became suspect. Having no way of defending herself the Queen became stormy & very negative indeed. She soon fell ill & no one in all the court knew the true cause of her sickness or how to bring about a cure. The Queen still worked hard to make the Kingdom great, but because her efforts were received with suspicion, now she never smiled & went about fought & weary.

“The Queen needs daintier food,” thought the Court Cook, so he served broiled peacock eggs on toast, & pomegranates with cream, & wild honey, O & the  cheese-cakes as light as feathers, but the Queen just became fat & even more grouchy & negative.

“The Queen needs medicine,” declared the Court Physician, so he searched the countryside for growing things & he brewed rose-leaf tea, & he made a potion of basil flowers mixed with rosemary, that he distilled with dew gathered at sunrise, & wild honeysuckle from the fields by the sea. But the Queen only wanted coffee, & would have none of it.

“Perhaps music will divert the Queen,” suggested the Court Jester. “It might make her forget her woes.”

The Court Herald hastened thru the streets, calling as loudly as he could: “Music for the Queen! Music for the Queen! Riches & honor for whoever can play a healing tune – one that will make her majesty forgo her sorrow.”

Immediately the palace was filled with music, some of it quite beautiful & some played by the very famous of the famous in all the land. But it was deemed either too loud or too soft, too high or too low by the Queen. A sweet singer came with his lute & regaled the Queen. But at the end the Queen was still weak & sorrowful. A harpist from a far country came & played music that sounded like the mighty wind on high mountain tops & the rushing flow of great valley streams. But the Queen slightly moved was still only able to thank the harpist & request that he be paid for his pains & bid him journey back to his home. Later, there came a trumpeter who gave great battle calls on his horn, but the Queen covered her ears to shut out the sound & looked even sadder than ever because the sound only gave her a headache.

So it seemed as if not even music would make the Queen well, & since no one suspected what the 3 evil Dukes were about, no one knew what to do & so pallor of gloom hung about the kingdom. The Queen spoke her mind at the palace meetings, & what she said was true, & certainly for the good of all, but her pain-tinged tone came across as harsh & no one wanted to listen. The evil Dukes played off her pain & kept the rumors going to keep her off balance.

Meanwhile, way down in the valley, there lived a little boy called Gladheart who tended sheep. He was the youngest of five brothers, & there was little room & less food for them in their mother’s house. But Gladheart had been given his name because he was always full of love & smiled over even a crust of bread, ever since he was a baby. Now that he was a strapping lad of ten with a great flock of ewes & lambs to tend & drive through sun & storm, he had even more smiles & kind words for all; & he played his fiddle all the day long, filling the valley with his sweet songs. When he heard of the Queens sorrow, Gladheart said: “I must go & play before her majesty.”

“They will only laugh at your old fiddle,” said his brothers, but the eldest agreed to tend the sheep for a day, & Gladheart set out for the palace.

“The Dukes will have naught to do with a shepherd lad dressed in goatskin & bearing an old fiddle,” the guards at the door said. But Gladheart touched the strings with the bow & such a blithe tune came forth that the guards opened the door wide, & Gladheart went inside.

At first the sight of the Queen sitting so bent & sorrowful on the throne with a face as frowning & sad as a storm frightened Gladheart. But he took courage & stood as straight as he could in front of the Queen, & began to play on the fiddle a tune that he had learned while working in the fields with his sheep.

It was a lovable tune, like a dozen twittering birds & a little wandering wind & the voice of a rippling brook all joined with the sounds of the little Sun singers, the bees, the katydids, & the crickets. As the Queen listened, her bent shoulders straightened & her face became bright with life. She reached out her hands to Gladheart. “I’ve heard that tune before, when I was a young lass & all I knew was love ,” – It makes me well to hear it now. What is it about, lad?”

“It is about the Spring-time, your majesty,” said Gladheart. “It is the song that I learned from the fields when winter is finally over. And if your majesty will come with me to my sheep pasture, you may hear it there every day.”

No one could understand why the Queen was suddenly so positive & full of life, or why she went often to sit with Gladheart & the sheep, but they were all very happy over it. All except the 3 evil Dukes, who continued to plot, even though they were obliged to give Gladheart the riches & the honor that had been promised to whoever could heal the Queen. And because of the healing music the Queen was reminded that Love was all that mattered, & from then on she could find nothing else but beauty & good in the world.

snip, snap, snout, this tale is all told out

xox~hag

THe morning planets - Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn - low in the east before sunrise March 3, 2021.

2 March 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Have you seen Mercury (occult Venus), Jupiter & Saturn yet? Jupiter is brightest. All three Spiritual Beings are exceedingly low in the sky before sunup. Mercury, our sun’s innermost planet, has a conjunction with the king planet Jupiter on March 5. It reaches its maximum elongation from the Sun for the year on March 6.

Deathday of a Modern Knight | Reverse Ritual | Rudolf steiner, Rudolf,  Steiner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Dr. jur. Guenther Wachsmuth (1893 - 1963) - Genealogy

1963 – Deathday of GUENTHER WACHSMUTH, a jurist, economist, anthroposophist, author & first Secretary and Treasurer of the Anthroposophical Society.

World Library

LIFE

He was the second son of a pediatrician in Dresden. He studied law at Oxford and Munich. In 1914 he volunteered as a war volunteer and was placed in Russia. After the War he continued his studies in Munich and graduated in 1919. In that same year he had his first personal encounter with Rudolf Steiner.

After the fire of the first Goetheanum he was personal assistant to Steiner. He was an active support for the construction of the second Goetheanum. At the founding of the Anthroposophical Society in 1923 he became a board member. He would later be treasurer and secretary and continue his work until his death in 1963.[1]

PUBLICATIONS

WORKS

  • The Etheric Formative Forces in Cosmos, Earth and Man: A Path of Investigation into the World of the Living. Vol. 1 translated by Olin Dantzler Wannamaker. 1932. Anthroposophic Press, New York.[2]
  • The Evolution of Mankind: Cosmic Evolution, Incarnation on the Earth, The Great Migrations, Spiritual History. Translated by Norman Macbeth. 1961, Philosophic-Anthroposophic Press (Dornach, Switzerland) [3]
  • The Life and Work of Rudolf Steiner from the Turn of the Century to his Death. 1955, Whittier Books (New York), Translated by Olin D. Wannamaker and Reginald E. Raab[4]
  • Reincarnation as a Phenomenon of Metamorphosis. 1937. Anthroposophic Press, R. Steiner Publishing Co. (New York, London).[5]
  • The Ethereal World in Science, Art and Religion. From the Way of Man to Control the Image Forces. Anthroposophical Philosophisch-Verlag, Dornach 1927.
  • The Evolution of the Earth. Cosmogony and Geology, An Organic Becoming. Anthroposophical Philosophisch-Verlag, Dornach 1950.
  • Cosmic Aspects of Birth and Death. Contributions to Karmic Research. Anthroposophical Philosophisch-Verlag, Dornach 1956, 3 A. 1990.

LITERARY WORKS

  • Kepler’s secret world. Drama in 12 pictures. Hybernia, Basel / Dornach 1946
  • Noah. Dramatic Sketch in 7 pictures. Hybernia, Basel / Dornach Dornach 1948
  • The division of the earth. Drama of a new era. Hybernia, Dornach 1954
  • Archangel in the council. Drama in 8 images with prelude and epilogue. Geering, Dornach 1961

EDITOR

  • Gaea Sophia. Yearbook of the Natural Science Section of the Free School at the Goetheanum, Volumes I-VI, Dornach / Stuttgart / Basel 1926-1932
  • Goethe in our time. Rudolf Steiner Goetheanismus as a research method, Dornach 1949

EXTERNAL LINKS

  • German National Library

The Etheric World in Science, Art, and Religion
Volume II by Dr. Guenther Wachsmuth, 1927

The Etheric Formative Forces in Cosmos, Earth & Man by Dr. Guenther Wachsmuth, 1932

The General Anthroposophical Society - Founding at Christmas 1923 Presided  over by Rudolf Steiner. With Marie Steiner - Ita Wegman - Albert Steffen -  G… | Oculto

The Initiative Forum Radio Show is on each day at 1 pm CST. HOSTED BY dj UV-RAY (aka Ultra-Violet Archer) The theme is ’soundtrack for social change.’ Come join in it’s free https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84967635723?pwd=NjIrTXM5VWRNTTFlQkEzZG1EMTBCUT09

Greetings from YIP13, We are happy to present the 2021 Initiative Forum program 
ARE YOU LISTENING 3 -7 March Check out the Program

The schedule is packed full of workshops, lectures and open spaces – we’ve made sure that there are opportunities to participate no matter what time zone you’re in. We are excited to welcome over 15 different contributors to the forum including Orland Bishop, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Nora Rahimian, Diane Longboat, and Helmy Abouleish. Check out the full list on our website’s contributor page!   

And of course, there will also be time in the mornings for movement workshops, and time in the evening
for open mics, pajama parties, and radioshow hangouts.

We are so excited to connect with you under the theme “Are you listening” and to co-create this worldwide community with you!

Our sliding scale tickets are available on our website.   

See you on March 3rd for day one of “Are You Listening” Initiative Forum 2021. 
Until then enjoy our pre-forum specials on our social media.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @initiative_forum_2021_.   -YIP13  

For more info. contact Initiative Forum

Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the  The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative Forum

What are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?

Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.

Here is a link to the full programand the list of contributors

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

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WAYS TO ENGAGE:

The ARC (Anthroposophical Resorce Center in Atlanta) is inviting you to a Six Basic Exercise Practice Group. Time: weekdays 9 am PT / 11am CT / 12:00 PM ET

Each weekday you are invited to join in a 15 minute practice group focusing on Rudolf Steiner’s foundational exercises.  We begin the time each day with a 5 minute leading thought focusing one aspect of the practice. We will follow that with a 5 minute period in which we turn off our cameras and practice on our own. After the five minute bell, we take 1-2 minutes to journal about our experience and the end the call with a 3 minute closing thought. Come when you can, and leave when you must.   

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/266986103?pwd=bXU4a0EvMmJkMDZTR0Rqcm0xZ0pUZz09 Meeting ID: 266 986 103 Passcode: 345338

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Wednesdays 9:30-11:00am CT  – True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation, by Rudolf Steiner. We incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’, eurythmy, focused discussion and seasonal artistic explorations in our study. All are Welcome. Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg.  Hazel@ReverseRitual.com We meet in person in the Branch Library or join via Zoom Meetinghttps://zoom.us/j/98689103462’Meeting ID: 986 8910 3462

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Fridays 12noon – 1:30pm CT. The Esoteric Path Through the Nineteen Class Lessons by Sergei O. Prokofieff. A serious study for Members of the School of Spiritual Science. Contact Hazel Archer-GinsbergHazel@ReverseRitual.com

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Sundays 7-9pm CT. Our international group is studying The 5th Gospel by Rudolf Steiner. We meet weekly EXCEPT ON THE 4TH SUNDAY Contact Hazel Archer-GinsbergHazel@ReverseRitual.com, Join Zoom Meeting  https://zoom.us/j/98201185799?pwd=NUliUWw3UVAxZzI0Y2NKSnI5eHhzdz09 Meeting ID: 982 0118 5799 Passcode: peace

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3 March – 7 March 2021 The International Youth Initiative Program (YIP) invites you to the ‘Initiative Forum: Are you Listening The week is packed full of workshops, lectures and open spaces – we’ve made sure that there are opportunities to participate no matter what time zone you’re in. We are excited to welcome over 15 different contributors to the forum including Orland Bishop, Nora Rahimian, Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Diane Longboat, and Helmy Abouleish. Check out the full list on our website’s contributor page

***

March 3, 2021 – 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm CT. The Karma Project – The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing monthly study conversation, Manifestations of Karma. If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81681631480 Meeting ID: 816 8163 1480

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Tuesday 23 March 6:30-8:30pm Appreciating Our Differences Through Looking at Temperaments – The Center for Biography and Social Art warmly invites members of your community to attend this workshop in person or online. “How do we solve the riddle which each individual presents to us? We solve it by approaching each person in such a way that harmony results between them and us.” – Rudolf Steiner. Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrdeyvrzgqE9AnBYQ3hIc5KuxMvZa0rmW_ Warmly, Kathleen, center4biography@gmail.com Center for Biography & Social Art biographysocialart.org

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28 March 28 – 4 April, 10:10 am CT – Holy Week & Easter Festival 2021 The 8-Fold Path to the Easter ElementalsStarting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week, including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am CT to create together a Thought-Seed based on a Herbert Hahn Verse When I think light, my soul shines, When my soul shines, the earth is a star, When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human beingWe will then work with indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner’s/The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (5 min) Holy Week chart. $10 Suggested Donation.Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Hazel@ReverseRitual.com Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

4 April, 2–4 pm CT. Easter Festival for the Elementals– Eurythmy-Mary Ruud, Hazel Archer–The New Sun, Keynote withInes Katharina (Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee. $10 Suggested Donation. Contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg. Hazel@ReverseRitual.com  Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Wade in…

Lenten-Tide Day #2:

From Lisa Bennett: ‘Also, for your consideration: 40 is the value of the Hebrew Letter Mem – Water. Water is the “water that will not wet the hands” as opposed to the Fire that Moses saw that did not consume the Bush. John said that One would come after him Baptizing in Fire and the Holy Spirit. Also, in the Wilderness when Jesus was tempted he was tempted 3 times, and each of these temptations has a significant character to it, a specific aspect of fall that can only be remedied through what Jesus referred to in Matthew 28 “baptizing ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. Jesus was born of the waters of his mothers’ womb, his first miracle was at a wedding and involved water. I will dive deep into the depths with you these 40 days as we await taking a breath on the other side with the Breath of Life fully filling us.’

Image result for The Healing at Bethesda famous painting

From Steve Hale: The Gospel of John – The Healing at Bethesda: “Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. A man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk.”

Image result for Wade in the water, wade in the water children painting

Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

Who’s that yonder dressed in red
Wade in water
Must be the children that Moses led
God’s gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

Who’s that yonder dressed in white
Wade in the water
Must be the children of the Israelite
God’s gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

Who’s that yonder dressed in blue
Wade in water
Must be the Children that’s comin’ through
God’s gonna trouble the water
God’s gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

If you don’t believe I’ve been redeemed
Wade in the water
Just see the holy ghost looking for me
God’s gonna trouble the water

Wade in the water, wade in the water children
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

Image result for change your habits painting
Baily Adams

My question for Day 2 of Lent 2021:

2. What habits in my life are preventing me from loving with my whole heart, & my neighbor as myself? How will I address those issues before Easter?

Image result for change your habits painting
Rekha Rodwittiya

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

18 February 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover lands today!?!

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (4 interesting Deathdays)

Image result for Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

1535 – Deathday of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, &  theologian. “  In Agrippa’s time one found, it is true, little comprehension of the “natural magic” which he advocated, and which seeks in nature the natural, and the spiritual only in the spirit; men clung to the “supernatural magic” which seeks the spiritual in the realm of the sensory, and against which Agrippa fought. This is why the Abbot Trithemius of Sponheim advised him to communicate his views as a secret doctrine only to a few chosen ones, who were able to rise to a similar conception of nature and spirit, for “one gives only hay to oxen and not sugar, as to songbirds.” It is perhaps to this abbot that Agrippa himself owes the right point of view.” ~ Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age, by Rudolf Steiner

Lucas Cranach the Elder

1546 – Deathday of Martin Luther, German priest & theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation. A piece of paper was later found on which Luther had written his last statement. The statement was in Latin, apart from “We are beggars,” which was in German. The statement reads:

No one can understand Virgil’s Bucolics unless he has been a shepherd for five years. No one can understand Virgil’s Georgics, unless he has been a farmer for five years.

No one can understand Cicero’s Letters (or so I teach), unless he has busied himself in the affairs of some prominent state for twenty years.

Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles.

Do not assail this divine Aeneid; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.

We are beggars: this is true.

Image result for Michelangelo

1564 – Deathday of Michelangelo, Italian sculptor & painter. “In Michelangelo we have a spirit who helped human evolution on its way because he had a maturity of soul which enabled him to imprint on the world of space and matter significant facts from the spiritual world. He stood wholly in the great current of his times yet his own inmost quality was not fully understood. A friend once wrote to him that even the Pope feared him; and yet in his soul there lived all the greatness of Christian impulses which flowed into his work. While he felt himself at one with the great Christian impulses he yet lived at the dawn of a later epoch — closely though it was still connected with earlier ages. The content of older Christian impulses still affected his soul and out of that he created something which in its form and artistic method was already part of the ties in which we ourselves live. Hence comes the mood of the poem which he wrote — probably during his last days as he looked back over his life — and which makes it clear what our relation is to him, and how we should allow his influence over us to work:

Now hath my life across a stormy sea
like a frail barque reached that wide port where all
are hidden, ere the final reckoning fall
of good and evil for eternity.

Now know I well how that fond phantasy,
which made my soul the worshipper and thrall
of earthly art, is vain; how criminal
is that which all men seek unwillingly.

Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed
what are they when the double death is nigh?
The one I know for sure, the other dread.

Painting nor sculpture now can lull to rest
my soul that turns to His great Love on high
Whose arms to clasp us on the cross were spread.” ~ from ‘Michelangelo’, A Lecture given by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 8th January, 1914, GA 63

Head and shoulders portrait

1967 – Deathday of J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist & academic. “Father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico. Oppenheimer later remarked that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” In August 1945, the weapons were used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

After the war ended, Oppenheimer became chairman of the influential General Advisory Committee of the newly created United States Atomic Energy Commission. He used that position to lobby for international control of nuclear power to avert nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb during a 1949–50 governmental debate on the question & subsequently took stances on defense-related issues that provoked the ire of some factions in the U.S. government & military. During the Second Red Scare, those stances, led to him suffering the revocation of his security clearance in a much-written-about hearing in 1954. Effectively stripped of his direct political influence, he continued to lecture, write & work in physics.

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Image result for Michelangelo
Michelangelo

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Thought finds form
All that is forgotten returns
Transformed in the doing
This moment marks a time
Like a black obsidian
Reflecting sunlight
Into my mind’s eye
~hag

***

Weaving a non-gendered Feminist Reality with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg*

Friday 5 March 2021 – 6:30 am – 8 am Central Time as part of the The International Youth Initiative Program Initiative Forum

What are the qualities of the Divine Feminine? How can we use them to empower an innovative way of thinking, feeling & willing, to create a new world, where the human being is free?

Have paper & colored pencils at the ready for this hands-on workshop.

*Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Founder of Reverse Ritual: Understanding Anthroposophy through the Rhythms of the Year & the ‘I Think Speech’ Podcast. Trans-denominational Minister, Essayist, Lecturer, Poet, Anthroposopher – working as the Festivals Coordinator of the Chicago Rudolf Steiner Branch, & the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society. Past Video Recordings

 Other presenters include:
Oland Bishop, & Helmy Abouleish
Managing Director of SEKEM


While this wasn’t exactly what we first envisioned, moving online means
that this forum will be more accessible than perhaps ever before.
The program will be designed to accommodate people from different time zones
all over the globe, and we look forward to transcending restrictions and limitations by joining together in community with folks for whom travelling is not an option.

In addition to interactive workshops, lectures, open spaces, performances & more, there will be plenty of space within the program for fostering connection
and conversation. At the Initiative Forum, we hope you will laugh a lot
(wait till you see what our arts & culture team is cooking up!), listen deeply,
be truly heard, and experience the power of community,
which no distance can dull. We can’t wait to meet you!

For tickets click here! (it’s only $30 to support these young folks)
 To stay updated follow us on Facebook or Instagram
The International Youth Initiative Program

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The 8-Fold Path to the Easter Elementals

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday then thru-out Holy Week including Easter Morning, we will meet every day on Zoom at 10:10 am (Central Time) to create together a Thought-Seed Egregore based on the Herbert Hahn Verse

When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being

& then we will take turns sharing the indications for that day from Rudolf Steiner / The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’ (let me know if you would like to lead one of the days? (5 min) Holy Week  chart

Palm SUNDAY
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

Holy MONDAY
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

Holy TUESDAY
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Holy WEDNESDAY
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

Maundy THURSDAY
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

Good FRIDAY
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

Holy SATURDAY
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
EASTER SUNDAY
To turn one’s gaze inwards –
RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some 5-10 min. artistic exercise based on the indications

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a True Human Being
For the Earth is a Star
The Earth is a Star
When I Think Light
When I think Light
My Soul Shines

Easter Sunday – 4 April 2021, in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online 2 pm – 4 pm Central Time.

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Hazel Archer – The octave of the New Sun

Keynote with Ines Katharina (Bee Keeper, Founder of the Biodynamic Emerald Honeybee Sanctuary, Waldorf Teacher) Ines will connect the Easter Thought with the Elemental Beings & the flight of the Queen Bee.

Mary Ruud will give us a performance of ‘Rock Spring Wonder’

We close with singing ‘Now the green Blade Riseth’

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

*Dear friends, please join the call at 10:05 am to get settled in so we can begin the Thought-Seed promptly at 10:10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10:10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 29, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 30, 2021 10:10 AM
Mar 31, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 1, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 2, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 3, 2021 10:10 AM
Apr 4, 2021 10:10 AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730